1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for stabilizing modular furniture panels and, more particularly, to an apparatus that has two interlocked members to prevent relative vertical movement between two adjacent furniture panels when lifting either panel.
2. Background Art
In the modem office environment, where systems furniture and local area networks have become standard office fixtures, modular furniture has allowed flexibility and efficiency in the design of the office workplace. Modular furniture typically includes walls, or panels, that are used to divide an open room to provide individual office spaces for employees and desired employee privacy. Since these panels typically do not span the entire height of the room (each panel being approximately five and a half (51/2) feet high and six (6) feet wide), a desired openness is maintained. The individual panels may be secured together to form separate office spaces of nearly any desired configuration.
Each panel is also equipped with accessory hanging tracks that are used to hang bookshelves, desks, or other accessories from the panel. Normally, each panel has two accessory hanging tracks located near its vertical ends. These tracks generally are vertical metal strips integrated into the face of the panel that have a series of slots arranged along its vertical length. The tracks may be positioned so that its the slots also can be accessed from either side face of the panel.
Typically, accessories that are attached to a panel are connected using hooks that are received into the slots of the panel. Since the weight of an accessory can be quite heavy for a desk accessory or a loaded bookshelf, the accessory hanging track must be rigid and strong enough to be able to support the weight of the attached accessory.
Raceways at the bottom of each panel receive and contain power, telephone and computer network wires so that electricity, telephone, and computer communications, respectively, can be provided to each individual office space.
Offices are frequently carpeted for a variety of reasons, including cost, noise suppression, and comfort. In commercial installations, it is customary to cement the carpet to the floor to provide it with sufficient body to prevent undue wear. Today's modern modular furniture office environment has a major disadvantage when it comes to replacing the worn carpet. To minimize office disruption, it is preferred not to remove the furniture and modular office panels from the office space when it is necessary to replace the worn carpet. Otherwise each desk and work area must be cleared of all business supplies and personal items. All electrical, telephone and computer network systems must be disconnected and all computers, telephones, facsimile machines and so forth moved. The furniture or modular office panels are then disassembled as far as necessary and all of the items stored while the new carpet is laid. Accordingly, removing the furniture is expensive and inefficient based on the cost of the movers and the loss of staff productivity.
In response to the need to carpet without removing the furniture and the modular office panels from the office space, carpet tiles and furniture lifting devices have developed for use in offices with modular furniture. Carpet tiles or squares are used instead of contiguous broadloom carpeting in offices so that the tiles may be replaced individually when worn or damaged. Thus, one may replace the carpet tiles in the high-traffic areas without recarpeting an entire room. In conjunction, carpet installers have developed tools for lifting the modular furniture slightly off the floor to allow the old carpet tile to be removed and replaced with a new carpet tile. Thus, minimum disruption occurs when recarpeting an office.
When lifting and lowering the panels forming the modular office spaces, adjacent panels must be rigidly interconnected for stability and safety. If relative vertical movement occurs between adjacent panels, the result may be the panels breaking or disrupting the power, telephone and computer network system wires. The connection between adjacent panels are designed to prevent horizontal movement of each panel with respect to its neighboring panels and to add strength and rigidity to the connected panels. However, these connections are not designed to prevent relative vertical movement of each panel between adjacent panels because the panels are designed to rest on a stable floor surface that eliminates any requirement to design a form of relative vertical restraint. Thus, because these connections can not typically support the weight of one panel by another, attempting to raise a series of panels may result in a failure of the connections and the breakage of the modular furniture panel. The problem of preventing relative vertical movement of adjoining furniture pieces is especially difficult when the two adjoining panels form a corner.
One example of a comer stabilizer system to address lifting modular furniture is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,386, which issued to Wurdack. The Wurdack patent discloses a comer stabilizer that uses two separable forks that are both connected to each other and into two furniture panels that form a comer so that relative vertical movement between the panels is prohibited. In use, the tines of the first fork, the primary fork, are inserted into the respective slots of the hanging track of the first furniture panel so that slots formed in the primary fork align with the slots on the hanging track of the second furniture panel. The tines of the other fork, the locking fork, are first passed through the slots of the primary fork and then into the hanging track of the second furniture panel so that the two forks are interlocked. Both the primary fork tines and the locking fork tines are driven into and extend substantially through the hanging track. Since the relationship of the primary fork and the locking fork is fixedly positioned by the geometry of the slots and the locking tines, relative vertical movement of the primary fork and the locking fork does not occur, nor does vertical movement occur between the engaged captured furniture panels.
However, the device disclosed in the Wurdack patent has many disadvantages. The forks must be inserted into the length of the slot to function properly. Thus, the forks cannot be used in tracks that do not extend through the panel a sufficient depth. Another problem is that due to the fixed geometry of the forks, the primary fork must be oriented precisely so that the locking fork can be inserted through both the slots of the primary fork and those of the track of the other furniture panel. The primary and secondary forks are also difficult to remove after use, for which situation the patent discloses a complicated system to remove the "wedged" in forks.